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Arcane Labyrinth
The Arcane Labyrinth is a set of dungeons featured in the 20th Anniversary, iOS and Android versions of Final Fantasy II. It consists of a group of three dungeons, each with a set of player-generated floors (see below) and a static floor at the end containing only a boss. While they act collectively as a bonus dungeon, the Labyrinths can be entered and completed at any time, and due to their mechanics must be traversed several times throughout the game to get the most out of the rewards. Story The origins of the three Labyrinths are unknown, but long ago they were used to seal away Destroy, the ultimate magic. The Guardian of the Destroy Tome, Deumion, awaits at the High Altar of the Arcane Sanctuary where the Destroy Tome is kept. Various floors in the Labyrinths contain travelers who hint they entered the Labyrinths to try and find a way to reach Deumion and discover the power he guards, but their attempts failed. The Labyrinths alter space and time to create their floors, in the cases of the four key words related to Deumion directly recreating events that occurred in the ancient past, and bringing characters and monsters from throughout the game together in their floors. Labyrinth locations There are three Arcane Labyrinths: The North West Quarter is located far west of Salamand, the North East Quarter is north of Bafsk, and the Southern Quarter is west of Kashuan. The Arcane Sanctuary, the fourth area, is located shortly north of Poft. AL - Northeast.png|The Northeast sector of the Arcane Labyrinth. AL - Northwest.png|The Northwest sector of the Arcane Labyrinth. AL - Southeast.png|The Southeast sector of the Arcane Labyrinth. Arcane Sanctuary - WM.png|The Arcane Sanctuary on the world map. Traversing When the player enters any of the three Labyrinths, two Black Mages will offer them advice. One hints about combinations of words that create beneficial effects, and the other, if told a Key Term, will tell how much good fortune he senses in the word for each of the current party members. In all three Labyrinths, the player cannot Warp or Teleport out, and cannot save. When the player approaches the flame and tells it a Key Term, a portal appears that warps the player to the next floor, whose appearance is pre-set depending on the Key Term used. All floors have some sort of challenge to perform, and as a reward the player will receive a new Key Term, or a hint for the challenge of another floor. All floors contain another flame where they can use another Key Term to create the next floor, or can warp out of the dungeon. A Key Term can only be used once per Labyrinth. The North West Quarter has four floors, the North East Quarter has seven, and the South Quarter has ten. After traversing all floors, the player arrives as a final floor where a final flame summons a boss enemy for them to fight, the difficulty varying depending on the Key Terms used. As the player completes each Labyrinth, a flame lights on a torch in the Arcane Sanctuary corresponding to the relative position of the completed Labyrinth to the Sanctuary on the world map. With all three Labyrinths completed, all three flames light and the door down to the High Altar is unsealed. At the High Altar, Deumion will summon Phrekyos to fight the party, and when it is defeated he will ask them what they seek. The player must tell Deumion a Key Term, which in combination with the Key Terms used in the three Labyrinths, will prompt a reward from him. The reward will either be an Elixir, a character's exclusive ultimate weapon, or one of two new spells. At the end of the game, the Key Term Jade Passage unlocks Oblivion, the first in a sequence of four Key Terms; Oblivion, Hope, Destruction, and Guardian, which tell the backstory of Deumion. When Deumion is next reached, telling him Destruction will prompt a battle with Deumion himself, with the unique Destroy Tome as the reward. If they instead give him the Light of Hope, received on the Guardian floor, he will give them the Revive Tome. Once one of the two tomes is received, the player can never receive the other. After receiving their reward from Deumion, the Sanctuary will be reset once the player leaves. To re-enter and get a new reward, the player must complete all three Labyrinths again. Key Terms and floors There are 45 possible floors in the Arcane Labyrinth, but no more than 21 can be chosen in each run. On floors with a challenge to do, the challenge is almost always optional, and the player can choose to skip to the portal to the next floor and avoid the challenge, beneficial if they already have received the reward. With the exception of the four Key Terms directly related to Deumion, Key Terms are divided into four categories which relate to each other. When the player uses a Key Term to create the next floor, depending on the Key Term used to create the current floor, the quality of treasure and of the enemy encounter rate will change. The properties of a new floor depend on the key term of the current floor, i.e. if the player is at a "Locations" floor and chooses a key term of the "Magic and Spirits" class, the next floor will have bad treasure and a high encounter rate. Uncategorized floors will not affect the string of keyword classes, keeping the previous class. In addition, there are five combinations of key terms that offer a floor with good treasure and no random encounters whatsoever. These are very handy, since in each case there is one key term that offers a difficult floor. The combinations are: Floors The following is a list of the Arcane Labyrinth's possible floors ordered by the class the key terms belong to. Gallery FFII Labyrinth NW Boss.png|The NW boss floor. Labyrinth NE Boss.png|The NE boss floor. FFII Labyrinth S Boss.png|The S boss floor. Arcane Sanctuary 2.png|The top floor of the Sanctuary. Arcane Sanctuary.png|The bottom floor of the Sanctuary. Etymology Category:Locations in Final Fantasy II